How many weak people would have perished in my place as victims of madness, despair, or grief?
But I have conquered everything! I have changed the world.

I gave to my soul the form which my mind desired.

In the desert, working alone, exhausted with fatigue, I have erected a stately structure in which I now live joyously and calmly, like a king.

Destroy it--and to-morrow I shall begin to build a new structure, and in my bloody sweat I shall erect it! For I must live! Forgive my involuntary pathos in the last lines, which is so unbecoming to my balanced and calm nature.

But it is hard to restrain myself when I recall the road I have travelled.